Just like the Pinnacle BK this has been in the works for years.

Buy airlines, merge them, fold them, put aircraft orders for business you don't have, improve pay, increase training costs.

Everything the last several years was done with this specifically in mind. They had discussions with Seabury Group back in 2012. This is what Seabury does.

They will probably look for some tweaks in the CPA's and the Pilot contract to allow them greater ability to shut Shuttle down and bring all flying under one certificate. Among other cost saving measures from other carious contracts.

AA had billions on hand in their last bankruptcy. Cash on hand isn't a metric that necessarily matters.